Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Tuesday Spotlight: Miss Mae

"What’s This Thing Called Kissing?

Have you ever wondered about the act of kissing? Of why a man and a woman can find such pleasure in touching their lips together? Since I write romance books, including a smooching scene – or two, or even maybe three – is mandatory. No story carrying the label of ‘romance’ can be seriously considered if this part is left out.

But what is the attraction? Why do couples do it?

Maybe I’m being too much “Mr. Spock” and looking at it from less of the emotional, but more of the logical side. But I find that question not only curious, but as Spock would say, “Fascinating!”

So I’m going to explore a few of the reasons of why the human race does this. Don’t expect anything profound. I’m no scientist or doctor or anyone with a string of letters added as a title. This is just Miss Mae, romance writer, speculating.

When we look at a member of the opposite sex, immediately we want to know if this person is “gorgeous.” We zoom in on the face. Does he/she have two eyes, one nose set in the right place, and then that mouth…yeah, okay, a nicely shaped full pair of lips. If it all fits together in a way we find pleasing, then we’re hooked. More often than not, we catch ourselves watching those lips, how they spread to form a dazzling smile, how they stayed closed correctly when chewing food, or how they purse to release a whistle. The next thought can be, “so, how good a kisser is he/she?”

But, why? Why do we want to be kissed?

The lips are very thin skinned (you might want to chuckle over that, but it’s true). In a light skinned person, the lip skin contains less of the cells which produce melanin pigment – or what gives skin its color. Because of this, the blood vessels are clearly seen, giving lips their notable red color. They have a high amount of nerve endings, the exact number I couldn’t find. Yet, it’s a given, right? We all KNOW how sensitive our lips are to touch.

So now we understand what makes them attractive, but still…WHY does a woman desire, crave, fantasize for a man to kiss her? And WHY does a man want to do it?

Here’s my conclusion: we, as humans, love pleasure. Those nerve endings in our lips zap the information that it feels good to kiss someone and to be kissed back.

That’s pretty frank and simple, isn’t it?

I’d like to finish with a quote that encapsulates this mystique. ‘There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not. The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.’